something else again
homage to Jacqueline Winter Thomas
Cordelia Hanemann
pull from the light
drink in the water
then air / each a breath
take in light a paraclete
wash in the water a baptism
breathe the holy spirit
then nothing at all
do not despise the hands
that reach out to you
do not deny the voices
that call to you
though the world weigh heavy
cultivate your own meadows
but do not recant the wild fields
present yourself to the universe
move and move and stay
so precisely still
that all becomes an elsewhere
know the territory of your own-space
the light will restore you
and the meadows and the wild fields
and the waters let them
dance and allow yourself
do not envy any colors
you are among them
all: house/room/wall
the tables and chairs
accumulations
of a lifetime you
are alone here
yet you belong:
sign/mark/token
even your name
before you were
you were something else
electricity breathing
the dawn and dusk of earth
now you are something else
again
Cordelia Hanemann, writer and artist, currently co-hosts Summer Poets, a poetry critique group in Raleigh, NC. Professor emerita retired English professor, she conducts occasional poetry workshops and is active with youth poetry in the North Carolina Poetry Society. She is also a botanical illustrator and lover of all things botanical. She has published in numerous journals including, Atlanta Review, Laurel Review, and California Quarterly and numerous others; in several anthologies including best-selling Poems for the Ukraine and her chapbook. Her poems have been performed by the Strand Project, featured in select journals, won awards and been nominated for Pushcarts. She is now working on a novel about her Cajun roots.